Manchester dentist indicted on 189 counts of Medicaid fraud

MANCHESTER — A Queen City dentist has been indicted on nearly 200 counts of defrauding the state Medicaid system and falsifying evidence.

A Merrimack County Superior Court grand jury handed down the indictments on Dec. 20 against Dr. Nicholas Marshall, whose office is in the Eastside Plaza Shopping Center off Hanover Street.

Marshall was indicted separately on each of the 189 counts, and because each is considered a class B felony, the maximum penalty is 1,323 years in prison. It's unlikely Marshall will receive such a sentence.

The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit of the state Attorney General's Office brought the charges against Marshall, who lives in Chester.

Most of the indictments allege that Marshall, between 2008 and 2013, "knowingly made, (or) presented ... with intent to defraud, a false or fraudulent claim for payment for a service for which payment may be made in whole or in part under RSA 161 or RSA 167," the state laws governing public assistance.

Each indictment gives a date and description for the procedure for which a claim was allegedly falsely filed. The most common procedure is for a "limited oral evaluation." Such claims, the indictments state, were "not justified in the treatment record."

Other allegedly false claims include ones for intraoral "periapical radiographs," which according to the indictments, were already covered by reimbursements for "comprehensive orthodontic treatment."

Marshall also was indicted on nearly 30 counts of falsifying physical evidence.

The indictments allege that Marshall, "believing an investigation was pending into the Medicaid billing practices," attempted to alter medical records.

Marshall's attorney, James Moir, said the dentist would be pleading not guilty when he is arraigned later this month.

Moir said he could not respond specifically to the charges because of the pending criminal trial, but he noted that he was unfamiliar with such a voluminous indictment.

"I can tell you this much, I've never seen, as a veteran of indictments, something like this," Moir said.

Sarah Blodgett, the assistant attorney general with the Medicaid fraud unit, was unavailable for comment on Tuesday.